Omni Invite Quotes - Friday
September 18, 2015 | Volleyball
Head Coach Liz Kritza
On The Last Timeout Of The First Set
“I was explaining what needed to happen in the next series of three balls and giving them their plan that they had to go execute, and they did so credit to them. I told them that when we changed sides to the second set that those sets can easily slip away. When you're down two, three points in the last five points of the set, volleyball is such a game of momentum that sometimes you can't recapture it. They did a really good job of listening and making sure that their defensive assignments were met. That's what that timeout was about. It was a quick, 'hey this is what needs to happen and we're taking this from them.' I don't really care that they're one point away from winning it; if we do this series of three things, then we'll win it. They were very disciplined and executed and that's a really good sign. We need to do that multiple times this season.”
On The Team's Multiple Offensive Schemes
“One of our strengths is our flexibility. I've said this numerous times in press conferences and previews for our team. I have something really great on this team. I have two setters, hitters that can be very versatile. For us right now, this is the offense that is working best. I think it's a lot of credit to some consistency and making sure that we're sending the right people at the right times. Gabby [Simpson] has been working really hard. She's coming away as the kills leader for multiple matches and we're able to get her more balls, not just on the right pin but on the left and in the back row. We're not just developing one offense to get through the entire season. Many teams have to have different looks, depending on who we play in our league and postseason. We need to be able to have that versatility. We're very fortunate that we have these players, particularly Gabby and Nicole [Edelman] right here next to me. We can go in and out of offenses which not many teams can do. It takes high level athletes and players to be able to do that quickly.”
On Play of Freshman Naghede Abu
“When you have a true freshman out on the floor that is weeks into her college career, some days she'll be great and some days not so great; but, with this kid it's either great or good. She's a very physical player. I'm really proud of her performance in this evening's match, because earlier today she struggled a bit. We addressed it very directly. She listened to corrections. I was privy to a conversation that Nicole [Edelman] as a captain had with her in between our two matches, and I think she responded really well. You can't ask for more than that from a young player to continue to try to learn, to come away with the numbers she did, 10 kills hitting .750 and four blocks. The quality of those blocks, you're seeing them improve, you're seeing her get better at something every week. That's what you want from young players, particularly the ones that are as athletic as Naghede. We're proud of the work she's been doing and how she came back tonight, and we look for more from her.”
Colorado Players
Nicole Edelman, Sr., S
On Timeout Taken at the End of the First Set
“I think for us we really focused on taking it one ball at a time. Because it's really easy to look up at the score and get caught up in the fact that we're down and we need four points. It's just about taking it one inch and one point at a time and we were able to close the gap by doing that.”
On Switching Primary Setting Roles
“I think there's pros and cons to both, if we need to we can switch into a 6-2 and have three hitters in the front row. Gabby's done a really great job for us, and since its working we'll just keep going with what we're doing.”
On Getting Back To Winning
“It was a really tough but productive week of practice for us. So it's been nice to see results from that hard work. We're physical enough to play with anyone in the country, so when we're able to play smarter and lower our errors it makes our job easier.”
Gabby Simpson, So., S
On Timeout Taken at the End of the First Set
“I think we knew that we could pull it out and win the game.”
On Switching Primary Setting Roles
“I think it's nice because when you run a 5-1 the hitter gets to focus mainly on hitting and when you run a 6-2 the focus has to be on both hitting and setting. For me it's been nice being able to put all my focus on hitting.”
On Her Good Play Recently
“This week I really put in the extra work on my hitting because I want to be the primary hitter on the right side. I feel like the extra work this week really helped me out.”
Anna Pfefferle, So., MB
On Timeout Taken at the End of the First Set
“We talked a lot about being competitors. And being down right at the end of the game needing to close out the win is a competitors dream. I think we all just stepped up and finished off that game.”
On Getting Back To Winning
“This week we just got back to basics and got back to focusing on our side of the court, not worrying about what's happening on the other side. We defentily worked really hard on getting back to playing gritty defense and getting to the balls we didn't get to last weekend. I think today we got back to playing our style of game. We all know we can do it physically it's just sometimes I think we mentally take brakes but tonight we were focused from the start.”
